Financial Times 2022 Business School Rankings are out and the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania tops the list (for the 11th time!). Surprisingly, Columbia Business School has seen a massive jump in the rankings with its MBA program and has taken the second rank. INSEAD and Harvard Business School are sharing the 3rd position followed by Kellogg School of Management at 5th. Stanford Graduate School of Business landed on 6th position, the University of Chicago Booth at 7th, and London Business School at 8th position. Yale School of Management finishes in ninth place, while the top MBA programs from the business schools at NYU Stern and the University of California Berkeley also feature in the top. Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business and the University of Virginia Darden School of Business dropped eight and nine places, but remain in the top 20.

M7 schools (Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Booth, Kellogg, MIT, Columbia) are back on the list and have taken 6 of the top 10 spots. MIT Sloan is the only M7 school to place outside the top 10, in 11th place. However, the return of the top US schools to this ranking, after deciding not to participate in 2021 due to the pandemic, has created a punishing cascade of declines for many schools. Apart from INSEAD, only London Business School and IESE could secure positions in top non-US schools.

Let’s have a look at how the Financial Times MBA 2022 ranking of B schools is conducted. The following table will give you a fair idea of the same.

Category % Category %
Aims achieved 3% International Board 2%
Alumni recommendations 3% International faculty 4%
Career progress 3% International students 4%
Career Services 3% International experience 3%
Corporate social responsibility 3% International mobility 6%
Employed at 3 months 3% # articles published 10%
Extra languages 1% Salary increase 20%
Faculty with doctorates 5% Value for Money 3%
Female faculty 2% Weighted salary 20%
Female students 2% Women on board 1%

When it comes to MBA ranking- the weighted salary of alumni and the average salary increase have the highest weightage (20% each). Wharton improved its position in exactly half of the 20 different data points used by the Financial Times to rank MBA programs, losing ground in only four categories. The 10 improved metrics accounted for nearly two-thirds (65%) of the entire ranking.

Prospective students should take these rankings as a pinch of salt. Some schools see huge jumps and some have a major decline in ranking each year. Almost all of these changes in school ranks have nothing to do with the quality of these MBA programs. Instead, they are a reflection of school participation rates, sample size, and external factors like a strong U.S. economy that has sent salaries at most American MBA programs to record levels.

Here, is the list of the top 30 ranked business schools MBA programs according to the Financial Times MBA 2022 ranking. You can find the full rankings here: https://rankings.ft.com/rankings/2866/mba-2022

Ranking School Name Salary % increase Location Weighted Salary (in USD) 2021 ranking
1 University of Pennsylvania: Wharton 115 US 237,530
2 Columbia Business School 125 US 218,542
3 INSEAD 93 France/Singapore 186,784 1
3 Harvard Business School 104 US 207,180
5 Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management 117 US 201,455 6
6 Stanford Graduate School of Business 114 US 218,805
7 University of Chicago: Booth 120 US 199,046 3
8 London Business School 99 UK 174,106 2
9 Yale School of Management 131 US 190,941 4
10 IESE Business School 124 Spain 163,780 4
11 HEC Paris 124 France 165,558 7
11 MIT: Sloan 99 US 193,297
13 SDA Bocconi School of Management 122 Italy 174,967 12
14 New York University: Stern 135 US 192,188 13
14 University of California at Berkeley: Haas 110 US 207,853
16 CEIBS 147 China 174,890 7
17 Cornell University: Johnson 142 US 181,821 15
18 Dartmouth College: Tuck 114 US 188,784 10
19 Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business 120 US 182,777 9
20 University of Virginia: Darden 137 US 182,174 11
21 National University of Singapore Business School 149 Singapore 159,877 14
22 University of Cambridge: Judge 96 UK 165,667 16
23 Carneige Mellon: Tepper 136 US 178,194 27
24 University of Michigan: Ross 120 US 177,803 21
25 University of Southern California: Marshall 131 US 179,095 24
26 UCLA Anderson School of Management 110 US 173,473
27 Georgetown University: McDonough 135 US 170,886 17
28 IMD Business School 66 Switzerland 164,192 19
29 Washington University: Olin 123 US 144,234 25
30 University of Washington: Foster 120 US 156,715 28

For more information about your chances of being accepted to a top MBA program, why not contact ARINGO MBA Admissions Consulting today.

To view other rankings such as the US News, Business Week, Forbes and Economist Business Schools and top-ranked MBA Programs, check out our Top MBA Rankings page.